


Werewolf Behaviorism

by melonbutterfly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Stiles, M/M, Mates, Oblivious Stiles, Pack Cuddles, Pack Dynamics, Pack Mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:16:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Is that a thing the alpha does? Feed his bitch? Is being the bitch a good thing? With human connotations it's demeaning but in the wolf sense of the word it's not, so what does Derek actually mean by that?"</p><p>"Nobody said anything about a bitch!" Scott wails and throws himself out of the car.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Werewolf Behaviorism

**Author's Note:**

> Prequel to [Instinct](http://archiveofourown.org/works/687844).

Okay, so, puppy piles. They happen.

Stiles definitely thinks it's a thing, or it should be one, because how often do you end up lying in bed with your friends? And not just incidentally accidentally gosh I was so exhausted I just collapsed on the spot, no. _Deliberately_. Deliberately getting into bed with them and touching and sort of hugging and definitely cuddling. Scott and Stiles certainly didn't do it before the whole werewolf thing happened.

Come to think of it, they also didn't do it after it happened, at least not for quite a while. Well, maybe Scott did it with Allison but if so it's highly likely no clothes were involved and Stiles definitely, definitely does not want to know any details.

So how did this happen? Stiles would really like to know. He can't remember – at first all they did was fight, which is understandable really, considering what a nutter Erica is. And Derek as well, certainly, but that's not news for anybody, except the entirely oblivious, among which Stiles certainly does not count. No, Stiles is sharp as a tack, bright as a button, he's a smart cookie, he's _the brain_.

"Stiles, oh my god, shut up," Eric moans.

"Hey, I'm not even saying anything!" Stiles exclaims, because seriously, he's been perfectly quiet. He's awesome and he definitely deserves some credit for it. That shit takes effort.

"Seriously-"

"Everybody quiet," Derek growls, and then he reaches across Isaac, takes Stiles by the scruff of the neck (or well, his shirt, but that sounds even more undignified) and pulls him over – as in literally across Isaac. Stiles squawks and both Boyd and Isaac whine because they get dislodged and then everybody else complains because Stiles flails a little and for a moment it's elbows and knees and feet everywhere. Yeah, puppy piles sound nice and well on the surface, but that shit is complicated to make comfortable, especially with a bunch of knobbly teenagers.

Derek pulls Stiles all up and personal into his chest, cupping the back of his head like seriously. Stiles flushes and he thinks it's understandable because cuddling with his friends is one thing, and it already is a thing, but Derek is completely another. Well, Derek is a friend too, but he's also… _Derek_.

And where the hell is he supposed to put his _arms_? Normally they just lie somewhere, a minute ago one was sort of under Boyd and the other stretched over his head so he could pet Scott on the shoulder, but now it's all awkward.

But, uh. As previously mentioned, Stiles is a bright guy so he's not going to let an opportunity just pass him by. He shifts a little under the guise of getting comfortable (he's plenty comfortable, cuddled into Derek's chest as he is), presses his face into Derek's neck and wraps one arm around Derek's waist. Derek knew he had arms before he dragged Stiles close, so he's just gonna have to deal with it when Stiles uses them.

Things quiet down again; at Stiles' back Isaac and Boyd get comfortable, somebody's back pressing against his, pushing him further into Derek. Stiles has no complains about that whatsoever.

This is nice. Yeah, Stiles is the only human of the group – apart from Allison and Lydia, but everybody knows they're both sort of superhuman, but then again so is Stiles with his awesome badass research skills – so he probably doesn't really get the same things out of it that the werewolves do, or at least not to the same extent, but he's still enjoying himself. It's sort of calming and makes him sleepy, at least after the initial excitement at being so close to Derek wears off. Because that is definitely new, even if the puppy pile thing in itself isn't.

Stiles thinks that the first time might have been after they all got a little banged up by something once again, but what had pissed everybody off considerably more was that the monster (Stiles can't even remember what it was now because such is his life that things that go bump in the night have become _normal_ to him, forgettable even) had gotten away. Apparently there's nothing like some cuddling to calm cranky werewolves down, or something. From then on it had all sort of spun off on its own until the puppy pile thing became a _thing_. A _thing_ they do at least once a week. Stiles' research has him theorize that it's a scent-marking and bonding _thing_ , just like the frequent touching, only more pronounced, a group thing instead of an individual two person thing.

Some time later they have to break up; even being eighteen Stiles does have a curfew and Scott sort of has too, though his mom is working evenings right now and won't notice if Scott isn't back on time. Unless she calls his house; parents are sneaky like that.

"Dude," Scott says in the car on the way back. Stiles has no illusions; Scott would much rather drive with Allison but there are concessions they have to make because of the whole hunter thing. Yes, everybody has long since coped with Victoria's death and the fact that Derek and his pack aren't actually responsible, but that doesn't mean Chris is at all happy that his daughter is part of a werewolf pack. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Stiles asks, furrowing his brows. He honestly has no idea what Scott could mean, unless he smelled Stiles' excitement at being so close to Derek, but that isn't new and Stiles has long since gotten used to the fact that probably everybody knows. At least they politely ignore it, saving Stiles from a lot of humiliation.

"Dude," Scott says again, sounding half impressed, half confused. "Derek totally let you at his throat."

"What?" He did not. Did he? "What are you talking about?"

Scott flails his hand helplessly. "With the thing."

"Scott. Use your words. We had a talk about this man, I don't automatically, magically get instinctual werewolf things."

"Derek is the alpha," Scott says slowly, clearly trying to put something to words he's never really consciously thought about. They have this sort of conversation not often, but often enough; whenever something happens within the pack that Stiles doesn't quite understand the undertones of. Like when the first puppy pile had happened, or that time when Scott had settled in Derek's lap and nobody had looked twice at it.

"Yes," Stiles eventually drawls when Scott just won't go on.

"He just doesn't… he doesn't let anybody at his throat like that," Scott helplessly tries to explain. "And he totally _put you there_."

"Is it about trust?" Stiles tries to help.

Scott shrugs. "I'm not sure _I_ could let you at my throat like that, and if I trust anybody I trust you."

"So, wait, throat touching is a big deal then?"

"With mouths especially, but yeah." Scott nods, relief evident at having been able to impart somehow what he meant.

Ooh, mouths on throats, that definitely makes sense, yes. It's a very vulnerable position to be in, and Scott is right, Derek definitely put Stiles there. He'd cupped the back of Stiles' head and pulled him close and…

"Oh my god Stiles, whatever you're thinking about, stop it," Scot exclaims. He's nowhere near as mortified as he would've been two years ago, when the whole scenting emotions thing was still new, but clearly he isn't happy with where Stiles' thoughts are going.

Well, it was sort of inappropriate, especially considering that Stiles is driving. Even if he's brilliant at multitasking.

"Get out, then," Stiles says, a bit belatedly, but well, they've only just arrived at Scott's house, he couldn't very well have thrown him out earlier, even if it would've been cooler.

Scott rolls his eyes and leaves the jeep.

On the way home Stiles thinks about what his best friend had said; Derek had definitely pulled Stiles close, ostensibly to make everyone calm down again, but maybe there had been something more to it? Especially if it's such a thing that he not just let, but actually put Stiles' mouth so close to his throat. So close, in fact, that Stiles would only have had to flick out his tongue to lick it, his breath must have been fanning over Derek's neck the whole time he was lying there. Stiles wonders if Derek had liked that, if he had _wanted_ that, if he-

Well, probably not. Stiles is still a spaz, even if he's grown a bit taller since Derek met him for the first time, and Derek never gave any indication that he returned Stiles' fairly obvious interest even a little. Not then, not as they got to know each other better and grew closer by necessity as the pack established. It's unlikely he'll be interested now all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere.

After he's talked himself down a little – something Stiles is well practiced at, because he sometimes gets a little ahead of himself where Derek is concerned – Stiles gets out of the jeep and goes to sleep. Well, gets to bed, because he did just spend however many minutes pressed up close against Derek Hale who generally always looks like he just wandered off the cover of GQ because he felt he was out of league of the company that put him in.

Five days later he has almost put the thing completely out of his mind, at least in terms of wondering about whether Scott had a point. The cuddling-with-Derek thing? He's definitely still thinking about that. Well, kind of.

But, anyway, the pack has assembled for a bonding thing, puppy pile- if not cuddle-free, meaning food and a couple of movies. The food is an eclectic mix of take-out as everybody brings something in from whatever place is on the way, meaning they end up with burgers, fries, Chinese, two dozen donuts, burritos and pizza. As usual there is fighting over who gets what and Stiles ends up with curly fries – which, yes, good, but he would really have liked some of that burrito. It's his favorite, chicken avocado, but apparently Derek shares his good taste and Stiles long since had to accept the fact that Derek gets whatever food he wants. It's a pack thing, one of those that took Stiles a little longer to get used to because he doesn't have the instincts after all and also, unfair. Derek tried to explain to him once that it's not something any of them can control without making an effort and why bother, and at least they can all start eating before Derek has finished, but still. The animal kingdom, it makes his werewolves weird.

So Stiles whines a little, that's what he does okay, until Derek huffs and tilts the burrito towards Stiles, clearly offering him a bite. That Stiles gladly takes and if that means he has to lean full-body into Derek that's just how it is. Derek doesn't seem to mind anyway, because he offers Stiles nearly every second bite, and to keep things fair Stiles pushes his plate over a little so Derek can have some of his curly fries, and then they share the last egg roll.

That one makes Stiles realizes how many advantages there are to a food alliance with Derek, because all Derek has to do is growl and any fight about the last whatever subsides and Derek gets it. The others don't look happy about it sometimes but instincts are instincts and Scott tried to explain to Stiles once that he feels guilty the whole evening if he takes a food item from Derek that the alpha wanted. And while the others are a lot less adorable puppies like Scott, they clearly have decided as well that it's just not worth the hassle to fight their instincts. So when they get to dessert Stiles makes puppy dog eyes at Derek and nudges him, and Derek obligingly claims the two blueberry donuts for them. Otherwise Stiles would never have gotten even one because blueberry are Lydia's favorite. As a result Jackson scowls at Stiles while Lydia sniffs and pretends she wanted strawberry frosted anyway, but one look from Derek makes Jackson subside, if unhappily so.

"Duuuuuude," Scott says later in the car. "What even."

"What? What? What?" Stiles asks, but it's sort of obvious what Scott means. He and Derek did stick a little close throughout the evening and he doesn't know why Derek allowed, nay, even _encouraged_ it, and maybe it was a little… maybe.

And then Scott says, "The alpha totally fed you," which, what.

"What?"

Scott flails, unable to put to words what he means any better than he already has, and admittedly he was rather clear this time, and says again, "Dude!"

"No but- is that another _thing_? Like with the throat?" Stiles' mind is working furiously, and now that he's thinking about it, well. He squeaks. "Is he _wooing_ me? Am I his bitch?!"

"Oh my god Stiles!" Scott exclaims. "What! No! What?"

"Damn right I'm nobody's bitch," Stiles agrees grimly. "But what's going on? What's happening? Is Derek trying to _make_ me into his bitch?"

"I don't know!" Scott squeaks. "Stop saying that!"

"Is that a thing the alpha does? Feed his bitch? Is being the bitch a good thing? With human connotations it's demeaning but in the wolf sense of the word it's not, so what does Derek actually mean by that?"

"Nobody said anything about a bitch!" Scott wails and throws himself out of the car. It sounds more dramatic than it is because Stiles is already rolling to a stop in front of his house and also Scott is a werewolf, but still. Stiles brakes, cranes his head to make sure Scott didn't break anything and that he didn't drive over his best friend, and then considers for a moment, tapping his steering wheel. Then he turns the jeep around and drives back to Derek's.

When Stiles gets there the loft is empty except for Derek, who looks a little confused, a trashbag in one hand because if Stiles doesn't intervene Derek lets the others get away with way too much, such as fleeing the scene without doing their part in the clean-up. This time Stiles had to leave early because Scott has a skype date with Allison, who doesn't get to participate in all their pack activities to soothe her father's nerves, and see where that got Derek.

"You're way too soft on them," he sighs, rolling his eyes, and helps Derek put napkins and empty take-out containers into the trashbag. They silently wash the dishes – Stiles' hands to his elbows in the soapy water, Derek with the dishtowel – and then settle back on the sofa with glasses of soda, because Derek is firm in his insistence that caffeine is bad for Stiles. Which, he's not wrong about that.

That's the point at which Stiles realizes how much of a routine it is for them to clean up after the pack, how self-understood it was for him to help Derek tidy up and how Derek didn't even question Stiles' returning. Stiles tilts his head and says, "So, have you been wooing me?"

"What," Derek says, and also, "I thought that was obvious."

"What," Stiles says and flails. "No! What! Where you flirting with me? When? How? Why now?"

"Yes, pretty much all the time, do you really need for me to explain flirting to you can't you just google it like you do everything, you're legal," Derek ticks of, and it shouldn't be charming how he uses punctuation like it's a rare commodity that needs to be saved for important occasions.

"I've been legal for five months!" Stiles flails. Not gonna lie, when he turned eighteen he did sort of wait, not quite expecting but hoping for Derek to maybe do anything but when nothing happened he put that idea to rest. The idea of Derek's reciprocity, that is, because everybody knows that once Stiles Stilinski has latched on to a person he doesn't let go easily. Sort of like a piranha. A lot like a piranha actually, only without the teeth and creepy eyes and eating a whole cow in three minutes.

"I had to make sure," Derek says and ducks his head a little, shy and awkward like he tends to get with feelings, and the insecure set of his shoulders always makes Stiles want to hug him.

And he can, now, he realizes abruptly, so he throws himself across the sofa into Derek's lap and wraps both arms around him.

"Make sure what," he demands.

Derek takes a stuttering breath and noticeably shivers before slowly, almost tentatively wrapping both arms around Stiles' middle and holding on tightly. "That you still wanted to," he murmurs as he buries his face in Stiles' neck and breathes in deeply once more.

"Of course I still want to," Stiles grumbles, "have you met me, I pretty much hold on forever, give me a little finger I'll take the whole arm." And that is not attractive and he knows it, why did he say that?

Except Derek shivers again and then the tension seeps out of his body, he practically sags into Stiles' arms and says, "Good."

"Good?" Stiles repeats incredulously and huffs even as he tightens his grip on Derek. "Good, he says. And couldn't you have made your intentions a little clearer? You know, like taken me on a date or something instead of obscure wolfy hints that I don't get without Scott explaining them to me." He pauses as something occurs to him. "Oh my god, don't tell me they all knew before I did!"

"Of course they did," Derek grumbles. "They knew before _I_ did. You've been the other alpha pretty much from the beginning."

Hmm, Derek's hair is really soft, Stiles quickly decides that it's his new favorite thing to card his fingers through- "Wait, other alpha? Is that what's on the table? Why did nobody tell me there are two alphas in werewolf packs?"

"Stiles," Derek sounds amused. "You knew. You asked me about it once."

"I did?" He did? When? Stiles has asked Derek about all kinds of werewolf lore and the similarities between the structure and behaviorism of wolf packs versus werewolf packs. Derek even started making an effort to answer as best he could a little over a year ago- wait. "Wait. Did you catch a clue about my supposed alphaness just after I turned seventeen?"

"There is nothing supposed about it," Derek says, clearly not happy with Stiles' choice of words. "You're the other alpha."

"Okay but- oh my god! I'm your alpha mate!" So much for being Derek's bitch. "Wait, am I your alpha mate? You said that's a thing but you refused to talk about it, you giant creeper. Did you know then?"

"Yes." Derek sounds a little embarrassed but also a little petulant, like he wants to be done with all this talking. Well, he should've picked a different alpha mate then because talking is very much Stiles' thing and he really needs to clarify what's going on here right now.

"Okay." Stiles thinks that over for a moment. "You said it's no destined soulmates kinda thing but. An alpha mate is always involved with the alpha. Does that mean I have to-?"

"No!" Suddenly Stiles finds himself on the couch again as Derek pushes him away and moves back, expression horrified.

"Oh my god, no!" Stiles exclaims. "That's not what I mean, you know I- you know. Have feelings. Things. For you." He flushes red, which is not an attractive look for him, he knows that. "I'm just trying to figure things out here, okay? Don't be stupid, Derek, you _know_."

Derek takes a couple of deep breaths and allows Stiles to take his hand, but he still looks a little spooked. "It's not- if you don't want to you'd just be my first beta, you don't have to."

"I know that, Derek," Stiles says gently and tugs a little, encourages Derek to move a little closer again. Which he does, after a moment of hesitation. "You know I don't set out to be alpha or other alpha or alpha mate or whatever, okay, I just want you, okay, and if that's what comes with it I wouldn't _mind_ ," and oh he very much would not, he still has to think through the implications of his apparently being alpha as well, "but that's not the endgame, okay?"

Derek ducks his head a little again, but he nods, and he allows Stiles to pull him into his lap, willingly moves back into his arms.

"Okay," Stiles says, running a hand up and down Derek's back. "I'm done talking for now, okay? Calm down."

And he actually manages to keep silent for almost thirty minutes during which he and Derek slowly settle further on the sofa until they're lying in each other's arms on their sides, which is longer than he usually manages even for puppy piles, so. Then, after Stiles has asked if being alpha mate and bitch are the same thing, Derek kisses him, which also shuts Stiles up, at least mostly.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Instinct](https://archiveofourown.org/works/687844) by [melonbutterfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly)




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